Douglas Lea

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1910|2|8}}

| birth_place = Liverpool, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1947|6|16|1910|2|8}}

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| workplaces = Strangeways Laboratory
Royal College of Surgeons

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| education = University of Cambridge

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| doctoral_advisor = James Chadwick

| academic_advisors = Ernest Rutherford

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Douglas Edward Lea (February 2, 1910 – June 16, 1947) was an experimental physicist working primarily in the field of radiobiology. He started working at the Cavendish Laboratory at University of Cambridge from 1931 to 1935, and in time moved from nuclear physics to focus on biology.{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=E J |s2cid=30411960 |title=Radiation and the single cell: the physicist's contribution to radiobiology |journal=Physics in Medicine and Biology |date=1 May 1976 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=347–359 |doi=10.1088/0031-9155/21/3/001 |pmid=819945 }} After obtaining his PhD from Cambridge, he worked at Strangeways Laboratory from 1935 to 1946, then at the Royal College of Surgeons between 1942 and 1946.{{cite journal |last1=Steel |first1=G Gordon |title=From targets to genes: a brief history of radiosensitivity |journal=Physics in Medicine and Biology |date=1 February 1996 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=205–222 |doi=10.1088/0031-9155/41/2/001 |pmid=8746105}}{{cite journal |last1=Mitchell |first1=J. S. |title=Dr. D. E. Lea |journal=Nature |date=July 1947 |volume=160 |issue=4055 |pages=81–82 |doi=10.1038/160081a0|doi-access=free}}

Lea published his influential book, The Actions of Radiation of Living Cells, in 1946, the year before he died in an accident.{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=L H |title=Douglas E. Lea, M.A., Ph.D. |journal=The British Journal of Radiology |date=August 1947 |volume=20 |issue=236 |pages=335–337 |doi=10.1259/0007-1285-20-236-335-b}}{{cite web |title=1940s radiobiology |url=https://www.bir.org.uk/useful-information/history-of-radiology/1940s/1940s-radiobiology/ |website=British Institute of Radiology |accessdate=1 February 2019 }} Lea was a major contributor to the target theory of cell death caused by ionising radiation.{{cite journal |last1=Chapman |first1=J.D. |title=Target Theory Revisited: Why Physicists are Essential for Radiobiology Research |journal=Clinical Oncology |date=April 2007 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=S12 |doi=10.1016/j.clon.2007.01.311}}{{cite journal |last1=Bodgi |first1=Larry |last2=Canet |first2=Aurélien |last3=Pujo-Menjouet |first3=Laurent |last4=Lesne |first4=Annick |last5=Victor |first5=Jean-Marc |last6=Foray |first6=Nicolas |title=Mathematical models of radiation action on living cells: From the target theory to the modern approaches. A historical and critical review |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |date=April 2016 |volume=394 |pages=93–101 |doi=10.1016/j.jtbi.2016.01.018 |url=http://math.univ-lyon1.fr/~pujo/BodgiJTB%202016.pdf |pmid=26807808}}

For a period in 1943 he was appointed part-time Honorary Advisory Physicist to Addenbrooke's Hospital and was thus the first hospital physicist at Addenbrooke's. In 1946, not long before his death, was appointed Reader in Radiobiology in the University Department of Radiotherapeutics

A memorial lecture in his name has been given biennially since 1948.{{cite web |title=Douglas Lea Lecture |url=https://www.ipem.ac.uk/what-s-on/eponymous-lectures/douglas-lea-lecture/ |website=IPEM |accessdate=2 February 2019}} He was a close friend of fellow radiobiology pioneer, Louis Harold Gray.{{cite journal |title=The Life of Louis Harold Gray |last1=Yamasaki|first1=Michio|journal=Journal of Radiation Research |date=16 January 2010 |volume=51 |issue=Suppl |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307578608 |issn=0449-3060|others=Translated by Nobuyuki Hamada and Mio Morimoto}}